CaKe
by DieselShay
Summary: Xander's new mission isnt exactly what he expected. Please R
1. Uncovering the layers

Hey guys I had a case of writers block for "Always on your side" and this story had been working its way into my head so I decided to take a break and write this. I must have a thing for having the girls in my stories pretty screwed up. Haha. R&R please.  
Shay  
  
  
Chapter 1. "Uncovering the layers"  
  
Xander woke up with the sun shining brightly in his eyes. He clamped them closed again and turned over on his stomach and groaned. He would be receiving his new assignment today. Gibbons had kept it a secret from him for months, it had to be something big. Sometimes he just wished he could go back to stealing cars and making money from selling the videos of him driving those cars off bridges on the Internet. After contemplating his soon doom he decided it was time to get up, he wasn't scared of anything he was just feeling particularly lazy lately. Yelena had left him almost exactly four months earlier, he wasn't really hurt, just more surprised. He was never the one to get into long term relationships anyway, but it had been really sudden. Xander was also pretty upset that he hadn't left her first, "take 'em and leave 'em" was the way he did his thing.  
  
He pulled on a pair of ratty old jeans and an Independent sweatshirt, nothing fancy he really didn't care how Gibbons thought he looked, he just wanted to get his assignment and be on his way.  
  
"God only knows what Gibbons has planned for me now." Xander said to himself as he jumped into his GTO and sped off to the station.  
  
When he entered the building he was flooded with the usual sound of beeping cell phones, pagers, and watches. Most undercover cops were busy but he laughed when he thought how he spent 3 months in Bora Bora after saving the world, perhaps that was his reward.   
  
"Ah Agent Cage I see you've decided to join us." Gibbons said angrily rolling his eyes as Xander entered the conference room.  
  
"Alright first knock of the "agent" shit, second of all I'm here ok?" Xander said sending an evil glare to Gibbons. The two still didn't play well, it was like they would never get beyond the fact that Gibbons was the law and Xander has once been on the run from it.  
  
"So what's my mission? What nuclear missel do I have to stop and save the world from now?" Xander asked sarcastically as he threw his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair.  
  
"Your not saving the world this time Xander." Gibbons told him with a rye smile on his face.  
  
"Ok, then what the hell am I doing? What have I been demoted?" Xander asked Gibbons edging forward in his chair and looking at his boss.  
  
"Not exactly demoted just reassigned in a way Cage. There's girl...."Gibbons began but was quickly cut off by Xander.  
  
"Ha I'm liking this mission already!" Xander hooted.  
  
"She's not like the girl in your room in Prague, Cage." Gibbons finished smiling.  
  
Xander didn't say anything, he never knew that Gibbons knew about that girl. No matter now.  
  
"Alright just tell me what the hell I'm doing then." Xander responded.  
  
"We've been trying to track down this girl for four years. We think we have a place pinpointed on where she is and basically want to cut her a deal, just like we did with you." Gibbons told Xander.  
  
"What did she do?" Xander said wondering if she was another rebel like him. He liked the sound of a woman who drove cars off bridges.  
  
"She's killed 5 people at least that's all we know about, and she's been drug trafficking since she was about 16. We have no idea if she's still doing it. She's had a messed up past Xander, we need to get you to get in there and see if you can get through to her." Gibbons told him.  
  
"How old is this broad and what's her name??" Xander asked curiosley, he didn't know whether he was going to have to work his charm on some 40 year old lady or not.  
  
"Dasha. Eighteen." Gibbons told him.  
  
"Ok, and just what do you mean by a messed up past?" Xander asked coyly cocking his head to the side.  
  
"When she was 14 she ran away from home." Gibbons told him.  
  
"So what? A ton of kids run away from home! I did it too." Xander scoffed.  
  
"She ran away after she beat her father to death with a baseball bat while he was sleeping." Gibbons finished smiling, he knew he had him.  
  
Xander didn't say anything for a minute.  
"Alright, and do we know her reasoning? Xander asked finally after taking in this girls crime. This chick Dasha must have had a reason.  
  
"Story goes her father was a real mean drunk. Beat the living crap out of her mother one day, and she ended up in the hospital. The mother wouldn't press charges, said she got mugged because she was so scared of her husband. Dasha apparently was just a bit upset grabbed a baseball bat and went after her father while he was asleep. We haven't seen her since she was 16 when she got arrested for dealing, she got away. She also has a history of self mutilation, stuff like that." Gibbons told him.  
  
"Alright so the kids a killer and she cuts herself. What exactly am I supposed to do here?" Xander asked almost insulted at this mission he was being assigned to it was a cake walk.  
  
"Love her." Gibbons said smiling coyly.  
  
"What?" Xander asked, he wasn't the midnight cowboy, what the hell did Gibbons want him to do?  
  
"Look we've run psych profiling on her files, her type. She's the type to be really strong towards a person and then basically melt for them, the vulnerable type. Get her to trust you, fall in love with you, bring her back here and we cut her the deal. She's smart though Xander I gotta warn you. She's VERY smart, watch yourself, you don't want her to be able to see right through you." Gibbons warned him.  
  
"Alright I get it." Xander told him. Maybe this mission wasn't exactly going to be cake, sure he could basically attack the girl and bring her back here but she was apparently not your average 18 year old, he had to get her to fall in love with him? He didn't really consider himself the loveable, cuddly guy type. But then again, with the way Gibbons described her, she didn't seem like the type to go for that sort of guy.   
  
*Meanwhile*   
  
Dasha leaned back and let the smoke from the cigarette drawl out of her mouth. She leaned over to the broken coffee table and picked up the glue gun, her new form of self- torture that she had discovered about 2 months before. She ran the hot glue down her inner forearm and let it burn. She ran it over the cuts in her arm and let it burn and dry there. She thought of how she got to be like this and then laughed. It seemed as if she couldn't remember anymore, she didn't care, she wanted nothing more than to sit there and let the glue burn. 


	2. Sugar

Hey guys, please R&R. I made up a little town and Mexico for this chapter; so don't worry if you think, "I've never heard of that...". Thanks.  
Shay.  
  
Chapter 2 "Sugar"  
  
  
She wiped the last tears away from her face. Dasha sat in the dark, alone as usual, curled up in her velvet chair. It was that type of velvet that's been worn out, the type of velvet that you can tell has been loved. The chair was the exact contrast of Dasha and that's why she kept it around, to remind her of what she never had. The chair became her sanctity. Subconsciously she rubbed at the deep scar on her leg under her jeans. It was one of the few wounds she hadn't given to herself. Her father, the man she hated with the most passion she had in her heart, had given it to her when she was 12. He had been drunk as usual and Dasha had gotten in the way of the TV, it started off by him just punching her in the mouth but Dasha was stubborn, she never sat and took something like that. She broke a beer bottle off the top of his head sending him into a rage. He chased Dasha into the kitchen but was too drunk to keep up with her, he pulled his knife out of his pocket and sliced her through her pants right above her ankle sending her crashing to the ground where he proceeded to beat her bloody until she was unconscious. Dasha remembered waking up in her parent's bedroom where her mother was stitching up her ankle with a needle and thread and the two cried. It was one of the few moments that Dasha felt the same way as her mother did. She pitied her mother, because she never got away from her dad, she thought that him beating her all the time was all right. But he couldn't hurt either one of them anymore. Dasha hadn't seen her mom since she was 14 after she had killed her father. She prayed some nights that she was alright but knew that her mom had probably just moved on to some other guy that hit her just as much if not more.   
  
Sometimes she wished she could stop the pain that she felt, just end it all and be good to herself for once. Dasha tried, but it was like sugar to her, she hurt herself a little and then it sent her on a sickening high, she couldn't stop until the high crashed. It was like she became a whole other person, when she was hurting herself she didn't care about anything at all except the pain she felt and the pain felt good, until she came down from the high, the crash was the worst feeling. She cried every time, she hated her soft side. She had killed her own father but cried after she hurt herself, what a hypocrite. On the outside she was such a hard person but she could easily crumble which made it hard for her to get into relationships, her past not helping. Dasha couldn't easily go out with a guy and then tell him "Oh by the way I killed my father when I was fourteen, do you want to go see a movie tomorrow?" and because of this she had a lot of one-nighters, and it was always she who left in the morning and never called. Most of it was for fun now, she thought it was sort of fun to lead a guy on now and then ditch him. Her hard exterior hid the fact that she was only a scared little girl on the inside.  
  
Dasha stretched her legs and got up out of her chair and slowly trudged to the kitchen as she painfully peeled the glue of her arms. She got out a pot and put it on the stove making a watery box-kind of macaroni and cheese, she sat back down on the chair and sipped on a beer that would soon be followed by many more. The fact that she was becoming like her father made her just drink more, she could ignore it then. This was how her daily routine went.   
  
Dasha turned on the TV and watched the news. She had stopped seeing her name on it a long time ago, for a while she had guessed that the cops had stopped looking for her. But cops never did that. Cases would be past on until the end of time with the hope that that elusive person would be caught. She vowed that would never happen to her, she had learned her lesson to stay hidden when she was caught when she was 16. She had been arrested for dealing but wasn't even doing it. Dasha was waiting to catch a bus and a deal was going on about two feet behind her; she didn't even know what was going on until the cops cuffed her. She got away but figured the next time wouldn't be so lucky; she fled to Mexico as fast as she could.  
  
  
*Meanwhile*  
  
Xander had to catch a plane in about an hour. He was supposed to get off in Mexico City and meet a guy named Alonzo to pick up his car. From Mexico City he would drive to Guilera, a small town where Gibbons said Dasha had been hiding. She worked at a café and he was supposed to run into her there. He loved how much Gibbons hoped for the best with him. 


	3. La Tormeta

Hey please R&R, thanks to the great reviews that I've gotten so far! They are very encouraging!  
Shay.  
  
Chapter 3 "La Tormeta"  
  
Xander got of the plane to see a short tan-skinned man jumping up and down holding a sign with his name on it.  
  
"Hello Mister Xander Cage! Hello?" the little man yelled.  
  
Xander laughed, grabbed his bags and walked over to the little man.  
  
"You must be Alonzo." Xander said sturdily shaking the man's hand, he remembered how he would never have done such a greeting before his last mission. Working for the people he had once hated so much changed him in small ways.  
  
"Yes, yes! And you must be Mister Xander Cage!" Alonzo said excitedly shaking Xander's hand.  
  
Xander laughed.  
  
"Alright Alonzo, you can just call me Xander, or X." Xander told him releasing the handshake.  
  
"I think I will stick with Xander.... my accent isn't very good with your American "X" sound." Alonzo stated trying his best to make the sound of the consonant.  
  
"Come now Xander, I'll show you to your car!" Alonzo said almost racing off to the parking lot.   
  
When they arrived at the car Xander smiled, his GTO had been delivered to the Mexican airport. Gibbons surprised him sometimes.  
  
"Well thanks a lot Alonzo it was nice meeting you." Xander told Alonzo reaching for his hand again.  
  
Alonzo took it and shook it jumpily.  
  
"De nada Xander Cage!" Alonzo said waving as he hurried away.  
  
Xander wondered how Gibbons met these people. Then thought twice, he really didn't want to know. He got into his car and took a folder out of his bag. He pulled out a picture of what Dasha looked like, he had to admit she was gorgeous, maybe making her fall in love with him wouldn't be so bad after all. She had golden tan skin and long straight black hair, and the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. He started the car and drove off towards Guilera.   
  
After about an hour he arrived in front of "La Tormeta", the café where Dasha worked. He got out of his car and sat at one of the outdoor tables and waited for the waitress. Dasha happened to be the only one on duty outside, he lucked out. She soon saw him and walked over to his table. She stood in front of him with a pad of paper.  
  
"¿Hola me llamo Dasha, cómo puede yo ayudarle?" she asked him.  
  
"Um...habla inglés? Xander asked her flashing his most seductive smile as he looked up into her deep blue eyes  
  
Dasha smiled back, 'this guys pretty cute. Might be nice to have a go with.' She thought.  
  
"Finally someone who speaks my language. I'm Dasha, what can I get you?" she asked him.  
  
"Well Dasha I'm Xander and I'd like an ice tea please." He said still smiling but he could not unlock his eyes from hers, Dasha began to notice and looked down at the table.  
  
"You don't want like a beer or anything to eat?" she asked him.  
  
"No, I don't really drink that often. Too early anyway." Xander answered her politely.  
  
'Wow, someone whose not like me. That's pretty different.' Dasha thought to herself.  
  
"Ice tea it is then." She said smiling as she took his menu and walked away. Xander couldn't help but watch the way her hips swayed.  
  
'I'm going to enjoy this mission.' Xander thought to himself.   
  
Soon Dasha was back with his ice tea.  
  
"So, Dasha you must not be from around here." He said his eyes locking to hers again, they amazed him.   
  
"No, I'm not, California actually." She said softly as if she had let some huge secret go.  
  
"Really? So am I, Sacramento." Xander responded playfully.  
  
"So what brings you here Xander?" Dasha said finally locking her eyes with his again.  
  
"Just decided to go on vacation, my friend told me about this little town Guilera, its not what I'd thought it would be it's beautiful." Xander told her leaning over the table towards where she was standing.  
  
"Yeah it is." She said looking around smiling; it was a lot different than where she had lived before.  
  
"But not as beautiful as you." Xander finished.  
  
Dasha laughed. 'Oh the pickup lines.' She said to herself.  
  
"Why don't you let me take you to dinner tonight?" Xander asked her cocking his head to the side.  
  
Dasha paused for a few moments, thinking to herself.  
  
"Sure, I get off at 6." She told him writing down her address on a slip of paper.  
  
"I'll pick you up at about 8 then?" Xander asked her.  
  
"Sounds fine. See you tonight Xander." She said winking at him and walking back into the restaurant to finish her shift.   
  
Xander sighed when she walked back into the restaurant. He hated to admit it but it was almost like it wasn't really a mission. He wanted this girl. She had been beautiful in the picture but she had enchanted him in real life. He had noticed quite a few scars on the inner sides of her arms; she didn't seem to be too private about that part of her life. She had been wearing a white tank top that clung to all the right curves. Xander figured that people in Mexico went with the saying 'Don't ask, don't tell.' So she didn't have to worry about what anyone thought of her arms. Xander finished his ice tea and hopped into his GTO to go to his hotel. So far it seemed like a piece of cake, but he knew that this girl had more layers than of just one piece. 


	4. Close your Eyes

Hey thanks SO MUCH for the great reviews I've received so far, I really like where this story is going so I'm continuing it. Please keep reviewing!!  
Shay.  
  
Chapter 4. "Close your eyes"  
  
Dasha stubbed her toe on the coffee table.  
  
"Shit!" she yelled at the inanimate table going back and kicking it in spite.  
  
"I will throw that bastard out someday." She told herself as she ran to the back of her small house and tried to get ready, she was running late and Xander was supposed to be there in 45 minutes and she still had to shower. She looked into the mirror and decided to skip the shower, she had taken one that morning and her hair looked fine. Dasha grabbed a bottle of lotion and put it on her skin and ran the straightener through her hair just to be sure it was ok.   
  
She paused for a moment and tried to think of what the hell she was supposed to wear. Xander hadn't said where they were going, but he didn't seem too much like a formal guy. She pulled on a jean mini skirt, platform sandals and a black tank top. Last she put a set of small stud earrings in, threw on some lipstick, eye shadow and perfume. Just as she finished doing this there was a knock on the door.  
  
Dasha stumbled from her room to the front door and paused before it. Why was she so nervous?  
  
She opened the door and was glad to see Xander wearing a pair of nice jeans and a black wife beater. Dasha had a chance to check him out this time, his body was gorgeous and his tattoos nearly covered him, but she didn't mind. As she looked him up and down she smiled.  
  
"You look very pretty." Xander told her breaking her silence.  
  
"Thank you." She told him stepping out the door, closing it and locking it behind her.  
  
He took her hand and led her down the dirt path from her small, modest house to his GTO.   
  
"This is a beautiful car." She told him looking it over almost as precisely as she had her date.  
  
"Not as beautiful as you." He told her smiling mischievously.   
  
"Do you say that to all the girls?" she asked him laughing.  
  
"No, just you." He answered helping her get into the car.  
Dasha didn't know where they were going but it turned out to be a nice surprise. He pulled up to a little restaurant she had been to once or twice where people ate and danced the salsa until dawn.   
  
He got out of the car and opened her door for her, again taking her hand but this time she laced his fingers with his. The ride over had been quiet but it was one of those comfortable quiets when you feel like your getting to know a person just by their breathing and being there.  
  
When they got inside the bus boy led them to a table on the deck that over looked the ocean. They were the only young couple out there but they received smiling and approving looks from the older couples when Xander pulled Dasha's chair out for her to sit on. She couldn't believe what a gentleman he was.  
  
"Thank you for letting me take you out tonight." He said smiling and looking at the menu.  
  
"My pleasure." Dasha told him locking eyes with his. She wasn't usually this open, how had this guy done this to her when she had only talked to him for 10 minutes earlier that day? Maybe she should just give him a chance. She reasoned with herself inside her head as she ordered her meal.  
  
By the time they started eating they had started up a good conversation. Dasha talked about work and her life in Guilera, leaving out the parts of her being a fugitive on the run from the United States government. Xander talked about his love for extreme sports leaving out the parts of being a secret agent sent on a mission to get her to fall in love with him so that the government she hated could make her work for them.   
  
When they were done eating and Xander had paid, they were the only people left on the deck. Dasha looked out towards the ocean that matched the color of her eyes. She smiled to herself and decided that maybe tonight she wouldn't ditch this guy, he just somehow seemed different. Dasha looked back at Xander and then raced down the steps from the restaurant deck and stood on the beach staring up at him.  
  
Xander leaned over the deck and Dasha motioned for him to join her. He followed her to the spot she was on the beach where they both took of their shoes and walked hand in hand on the shoreline.  
  
"I cant believe I'm doing this, when did I become a hopeless romantic?" Xander asked himself, but then a voice in his head that sounded a lot like Gibbons reminded him of the mission. He was going to do what he had to, but it wasn't like he wasn't enjoying what was going on between him and Dasha.   
  
Dasha led him to a large jetty about half a mile down the beach. She carefully walked across it using her arms to balance herself and stood on the edge with Xander in tow.   
  
"I come here sometimes Xander." She told him out of the blue.  
  
"You can call me X, Dasha. Do you come here to think?" he asked her.  
  
"Yeah I guess that's what you could call it." She said almost laughing but her tone was serious.  
  
"What do you think about?" he asked her snaking his arms around her waistline.  
  
"How easy it would be to jump, to let go of it all." She told him sullenly.  
  
Xander just looked at her, knowing he had more to say than she had.  
  
"But I cant do it, something's keeping me here. I'm glad though." She stated.  
  
"Why?" Xander asked her looking confused.  
  
"Because if I had jumped I wouldn't have met you." She told him.  
  
Why had she just said that? Dasha was hoping she wasn't falling for him, even though she knew deep inside her head she was.  
  
"Close your eyes X." Dasha ordered.  
  
Xander's look expression changed from understanding to confusion.  
  
"Just do it." She told him.  
  
He sighed and obeyed her orders. Dasha stood behind him and wrapped her own arms around his well-built body.  
  
"Listen." She said as she stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear.  
  
Xander listened to the waves crashing against the rocks and how the rest of the world seemed silent around him. He thought about how easy it would be to jump and be free, but he wasn't thinking of it in the way of suicide. This feeling went much deeper, and he almost knew what Dasha meant.  
  
It seemed like only a few minutes to Xander, but after an hour Dasha told him to open his eyes. They had stayed that way in silence just listening to each other's breathing and the crashing of the waves. The feeling was mind blowing to Xander.  
  
"That was amazing." He told her turning around and looking into her ocean eyes.  
  
"Not as amazing as you." She said standing to kiss him tenderly but quickly on the lips. She then took his hand back with hers and they began to walk back to the restaurant.   
Xander felt himself getting in too deep, but he didn't know that Dasha was feeling the same way. 


End file.
